My life has been full of good surprises, as well as one very bad. A near-death experience with an ectopic pregnancy changed my life and career and made me realize how important it is for women to know their own most fertile days. This led me to a breakthrough device and formed the basis of my commitment to educating women about simple things that can allow them to stop guessing and take control over their own fertility.

Every woman should learn her ovulation cycle. If you learn your unique ovulation pattern, you can gain control of your life by programming activities around it. We spend hundreds of dollars every year to buy dozens of disposable urine ovulation tests or pregnancy tests and spend several mornings a month rushing to the bathroom to pee on a stick. There is a simpler, less expensive, cleaner and easier way.

Each day, millions of women want to know “is it that time?” I am sure that many of you wake up with the same questions and are secretly searching for the answers: can I become pregnant today or not, when can I become pregnant, am I pregnant? And the answer is in your own saliva....

Working with many doctors, I put together extensive information to help women avoid many stresses and complications when they either want to have children or to determine the best time for conception.

I have always been afraid to use birth control pills because of the possibility of side effects. I remember doing constant calculations, each month desperately waiting for my menstrual period. Each month that there was a delay caused me stress and cost me money. But the most significant fact was that after using a pregnancy test, in the next days I had a period. It looks like I subconsciously postponed my periods due to stress. The same happens with women who want to become pregnant - and unsuccessful attempts to conceive make the situation even worse.

I want to share with you five reasons and five benefits of knowing your ovulation cycles. What is ovulation? It's a process of an egg ready for fertilization leaving the ovarian follicle enroute to the uterus.

Ovulation cycles may last from five to eight days. You can increase your chance to conceive by knowing your cycles, because sperm can live for two to three days. Many women mislead themselves about fertility by simply checking ovulation at the wrong time. Ovulation can occur at any time during the menstrual cycle, twice in a month and even during menstruation. Knowing your unique ovulation cycle is very important, and is the best way of natural family planning.

Why is it so important to know your ovulation cycles?

1. To visit doctor before it's too late. For some women, conception problems can be prevented if they find out their health problems in time and have appropriate treatment.

2. To know when conception is more possible. Many women do not ovulate each month and some times it's difficult to catch your unique ovulation cycle. Unfortunately most women think that regular menstrual cycles are a sign that they can conceive right away.

3. Use ovulation timing as a natural method of contraception. The American Medical Association (AMA) Home Medical Encyclopedia entry on "Ovulation" reads:

Some forms of contraception (see Contraception, periodic abstinence) are based on predicting when ovulation occurs each month and avoiding sexual intercourse at that time.

4. Gain control of your life by programming activities around your ovulation cycle. While ovulating, women may feel and behave differently, because of changes in your body. You can plan activities differently if you have this knowledge.

5. You may even predict the sex of the child. You can increase your chance of having a boy or girl by choosing the right time for intercourse. Sperm carrying X chromosomes lives longer and swims slower than male V-carrying sperm. Therefore, if you have intercourse about 3 days prior to ovulation, you have a better chance of conceiving a girl; while the closer to ovulation you have sex, the better your chance are of having a boy.

Benefits of having accurate knowledge about your ovulation cycles

1. Discover any irregularities so you can seek medical attention.

2. Avoid unwanted pregnancy.

3. Increase your chance to conceive.

4. Have a natural, healthy way of family planning.

5. Avoid taking unnecessary drugs.

There is now a convenient, quick, economical and easy way to give yourself an ovulation test while still in your bed. Available at www.maybemom.com, the reusable, compact MaybeMOM device enables you to test of a drop of your saliva every day to get the answer to the question of "When?" This product will enable you to create an accurate daily calendar of your personal ovulation cycles.

With MaybeMOM, you just place a drop of your saliva on the supplied slide first thing in the morning, allow it to dry and look at the pattern using the provided mini-microscope. If you see a fern-like pattern that matches the sample provided in the kit, ovulation is occurring. Be sure to read the instructions and information about MaybeMOM included in the package. MaybeMOM is the only saliva-based ovulation test of its kind to receive FDA clearance, and to obtain a U.S. Patent for 98% accuracy.